Author: Luygi

Posted on by Luygi Module 4 assignment: Latin America in the media

Peru’s Crisis

In the last week, Peru faced a huge turn of events and it is unfortunately currently still an ongoing issue. The former president of Peru Pedro Castillo was arrested and removed from office and all his powers. The reason for this was because he attempted to dissolve the legislature, basically resign everyone in congress and leave him with all the power to decide on things. This was huge because he was already facing charges for conspiracy and corruption. Castillo had multiple cases against him including corruption, the theory was that he was using his power and how big he was to profit from public works. Meaning he would charge and get paid a certain amount from public works that is supposed to go to the government. This is what ultimately led to him attempting to change everything around in this coup. This ultimately led to him being taken down and leaving Dina Boluarte as the president, who is also the first female Peruvian president. This has all led to the whole country being affected. Riots break out in his defense and against him as well, leading to others just taking advantage of the situation and looting stores and taking things. Many acts of violence are being spread around the country at the moment and 6 people have died in the last couple of days. Families of loved ones are going through this, people who own these places are being destroyed, and it just worsens the economy and healthiness of the country as a whole. “After years of democracy, Peru is in the midst of a constitutional collapse that can’t be called anything but a coup”  (The Associated Press). That quote pretty much summarizes what crisis Peru is currently facing as the president attempted to take power and form something very similar to dictatorship. This isn’t the only political crisis Peru has faced in the last couple of years, Peru has had issues with other former presidents that didn’t serve full terms. There have now been 5 different presidents in the last 6 years, leaving Dina Boluarte as our current president who still isn’t in the clear to the people as she just started her term and is already facing controversy due to this whole situation. This crisis reminds me of some of the lessons and topics we discussed and viewed throughout the semester. As we read Latin America since Independence by Alexander Dawson throughout class I discovered many new things on how things were run when a new revolution began in these countries. This reminded me when we read about dictators in some of these countries and how they dealt with it. First part was about Brazil and how a dictator was bringing down their own country. “Dictatorial powers also allowed the regime to drive down the minimum wage. By 1970 a third of Brazilian workers had seen their income drop by 50%” (Dawson 235). This shows how this type of ruling doesn’t really help out the country or the economy and actually makes it drop down so low probably to its poorest. All the money is being taken and spent by the dictator that the people don’t really have a chance to prosper. Then it spoke about the situation that happened in Argentina “By the end of 1975, guerrillas had killed 137 soldiers. The Montoneros attacked the police academy and detonated a bomb next to the army headquarters” (Dawson 237). These readings we read throughout the semester are very similar to what is going on in Peru right now. A country in Latin America facing a political crisis trying to rebuild as a whole while facing violence and protests.

Works Cited:

Dawson, Alexander. Latin America since Independence: A History with Primary Sources. 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 2022.

Article: https://www.npr.org/2022/12/07/1141307938/peru-president-dissolves-congress-pedro-castillo

Posted on by Luygi Module 3 assignment - Latin America in the Cold War

Cuban Missile Crisis

https://nsarchive.gwu.edu/sites/default/files/2022-10/soviet-fkr-cruise-missile-deployed-in-cuba.jpg

Throughout the Cold War, tensions grew between the US and the Soviet Union as both had the world’s biggest militaries but were also on different sides on politics. The main goal for the US was to prevent communism from spreading in Latin America. The biggest issue was that Fidel Castro, Cuba’s dictator, had a relationship with the leader of the Soviet Union Nikita Khrushchev and was willing to allow Soviet Missiles positioned in Cuba aiming at cities in the US. Although the US has missiles aiming at Russia as well from Turkey, this was another issue that was faced, because the goal was also to prevent this tension from starting another world war since nuclear weapons were being held and aimed at each other. If one were to attack first it would have easily started another nuclear war which would be far worse than any previous wars.

In this picture above you see soldiers loading a Soviet FKR cruise missile onto a launcher that was deployed in Cuba. Since Cuba was in Latin America and the Soviet Union was too far from the US, they planted their missiles in Cuba aiming and ready to fire at the US at any time in case anything were to happen. The Cuban Missile Crisis happened after the US tried to overthrow Castro. Castro started a revolution and took all the power to himself and turn the country into a socialist nation. Castro strategically created an image of himself that he is Cuba’s savior to the people. On January 8th, 1959 he gave a speech at Camp Colombia. The speech was “full of exhortations to unity, promises of real change, and vague threats to his enemies. At some point during the speech, doves were released in the crowd (rumors had them descending from the sky). They flew through the air and settled on the podium. One even sat on Castro’s shoulder. Critics claim the fix was in, that Castro had seed for the birds or that the spotlight trained on Castro attracted them to him. It did not matter. The doves, read popularity as a sign of peace and diverse approval of Castro’s role as El Comandante, sealed an unspoken deal. Castro, as the Revolution, would save the Cuban people.” (Dawson 209). This goes to show how Castro became a symbol for the country and represented a new time for the people to put their faith and support into him. It also led to a famous photo of a dove being on Castro’s photo symbolizing the change and leader he will be for Cuba. However the US was not on the same side as him, as they tried to overthrow him at the Bay of Pigs in 1961. 

So although the US was keeping control and preventing communism from spreading in Latin America, they still faced a problem in Cuba. And after they unsuccessfully attempted to overthrow Castro in 1961, it got worse as later on he began to have stronger and closer relations with the Soviet Union. It was beneficial for both parties as they were both under communist rule. Which ultimately led to Castro having Soviet missiles ready to fire in the US at any moment to start a nuclear deadly war like shown in the image above. This moment in the Cold War is very important to history since it was the closest the world ever got to nuclear war. And the world would’ve been completely different as we know it, had the US or USSR shoot a missile at one another. Overall, this ended with bot sides reaching an agreement to remove the missiles aiming at each other. 

Posted on by Luygi Module 2 assignment - Visual sources of late 19th-century or early 20th-century Latin America

American Legation in Lima, Peru

https://digitallibrary.tulane.edu/islandora/object/tulane%3A11356

I provided the link because the image was not downloading even after a screenshot. I apologize for that.


During the late 19th century, Latin America was becoming modernized and expanded dramatically economically. As they were expanding, it led to them being noticed and foreigners wanting to come and explore a life in Latin America. The image above shows an American legation in Lima, Peru. It’s a building with multiple floors and has an American flag on top. As Latin America improved, the US and Europeans definitely made an impact with their presence by arriving in all around these countries. There were both positive and negative consequences to foreigners arriving here and becoming economically and politically involved. The building and the flag in the picture mainly represents foreigners (mainly US and Europeans) in Latin America and the pros/cons that come with it. 

One positive consequence that foreigners had on these countries was economically. There was a lot of exporting done due to demands that were being made for their materials. Different areas of Latin America profited off of different exports. For São Paulo, Brazil “the physical and chemical qualities of the soil permitted extensive coffee planting. The relatively high productivity of labor, the vast size of the area planted, and the use of European immigrants who demanded monetary wages favored the creation of a modern infrastructure” (Wood 269). This shows how the foreigners who provided labor led to this mass production leading to economic growth. Towards the end “Sao Paulo highlands supplied two-thirds of the total world coffee input” (Wood 269) which is a great number when it comes to exporting goods. Overall, foreign influence had a positive impact on the lifestyle for all social classes since the country was doing great. 

Another event this picture connects to is the Cholera that was spread in Argentina. A ship from Italy that held double the holding capacity, came into Tucuman risking the disease since everybody was cramped up and easily was able to spread. At first they planned to quarantine the ship but “these plans fell apart due to political pressures” (Dimas 128). The reason this happened was because an Argentine political official who wanted to attend the ceremonies was on the ship. Political friends helped him leave the same day the ship arrived, so “Immediately all remaining passengers demanded their release from the quarantine, and by October 15th the ship was empty” (Dimas 128). So the ship was completely empty after only 3 days of arrival and due to the poor decision of the ship by holding double the capacity, cholera cases began to spread all over leading to thousands of deaths in a matter of months. This is when the Red Cross workers arrived which ultimately led to the debate on who they should trust. There were disagreements between the national doctors and local doctors, some people even believed that the American doctors were poisoning them so in Tucuman “once the Red Cross workers arrived, locals attacked and killed them” (Dimas 165). This goes to show the conflict and negative consequence of neocolonialism and foreign influence coming into these countries, there was a lot of mistrust and miscommunication between both groups.

Works Cited

Dimas, Carlos S.. 2022. Poisoned Eden : Cholera Epidemics, State-Building, and the Problem of Public Health in Tucumán, Argentina, 1865-1908. Lincoln: Nebraska. Accessed October 20, 2022. ProQuest Ebook Central.

Wood, James A., and Anna Rose Alexander. Problems in Modern Latin American History: Sources and Interpretations. Rowman & Littlefield, 2019.

Posted on by Luygi Module 1 assignment - Late Colonial and early Independence Latin American sources
Inca ruler is captured, 1533.

The Incan ruler was captured as the Europeans expanded and took over. This image shows what they would do as they conquered over land and would come across someone who stands in their way. They would kill or imprison the ruler/leader of the group to show that they are in control now. In this image they imprisoned Incan ruler Atahualpa. He was actually the last emperor of the Inca Empire. Although the Incans did have their spears and man made weapons to put up a fight, the Europeans were much more advanced as seen in the image. They had guns and cannons on top of their weapons. So once they had the leader, they took control and made it that land and those people part of their Empire.

While still in control in the 1700’s, they would try to modernize the empire and maximize their profits to keep up with Great Britain and France but it would lead to their empire actually weakening. Tupac Amaru didn’t like what they were doing and was actually affected by them opening up trades. It led to a rebellion that was led by Tupac Amaru and had a big following. However, Tupac Amaru would not make it to see them finally gain their Independence. They would kill him only a year later to send a message to others who would try to lead a rebellion against them. They killed his family and then him in front of all the other people to see. Although, in the end the rebellion did start something bigger which ultimately led to their independence.

These two situations represent how things were being run by the Spanish Empire back in the day. They would basically come and conquer without giving in. Once they took over they would put their new laws and rules in order and whoever revolted or spoke their mind against them would pay with their lives.